Miles & Moone

Update: Miles & Moone have announced a new addition to the family: rum. As with their acclaimed vodka, their small batch rum goes through a special filtration system, meaning ultimate purity and a smooth taste. There are two types of rum available, gold style rum and dark spiced rum.

The gold rum has a pleasing caramel aroma, delivering sweet notes with a hint of dark molasses. It’s the perfect base for a cocktail, particularly if your tastes lean toward sun-kissed tropical flavours. It’s even a delight when sipped neat, though we’ve had best results when mixing it with Cola. If you’re a dab hand in the kitchen, this rum works wonders when cooking – we heartily recommend rum-glazed pork chops, followed by rum cake (with a rum and cola on the side).

The spiced dark rum is a richer, more powerfully flavoured beast. This full-bodied spirit is all about those dark aromatic flavours, such as chocolate, cinnamon and cloves, but you’ll be able to taste some vanilla and even a hint of coffee in there. These flavours go well with a freshly-squeezed fruit juice, such as orange, apple or pineapple – plus plenty of ice cubes.

Miles & Moone have done it again. They’re masters at creating bright, delicious spirits that work wonders at parties, either as the core element of a cocktail or sipped on their own with some ice cubes at the end of a hot summer’s day. If you’re a rum fan, or simple like to support local, independent businesses – or better still, both – then an order here is a must.

Original vodka review:

One of the few good things to come out of the 2020/21 lockdown was the rise in small-scale independent food and drink businesses. With all that time at home, a decent number of people knuckled down and threw themselves into creating something delicious for UK consumers. Northern drinks company Miles & Moone is one of the more notable entries into the field.

Celebrate the first mostly-normal festive season in a long time with a drink around the tree

Based in Bolton, the small team saw the broad appeal of gin and thought bigger and better, turning their attention to vodka. Of course, vodka is seen as the most flavourless of the spirits, so the answer was obvious. Skip forward through a lot of hangover-inducing (and enjoyable) research, and Miles & Moone has come up with a niche range of flavoured vodka that puts the spotlight firmly on taste.

First impressions are very good indeed. The bottles look great: simple, unfussy and stylish, with attractive bright colours for each option. And the sheer amount of choice is where Miles & Moone trounce their peers. There’s everything from the sophisticated (apple and elderflower, lemongrass, orange blossom) to the fun and fancy-free (bubblegum, cream soda, summer punch).

The flavours are big and bold, working wonderfully well with the sharpness of the high-quality vodka. And they’re versatile – you could add some plum and blueberry into a cocktail with some berries and a dash of prosecco, or just take a shot on its own. This isn’t the cheapo corner shop vodka you drank with your mates as a teenager, these are elegant bottles designed for all occasions, whether that’s a birthday tipple, a wedding day cocktail or simply to sip at the end of the day.

The flavours are big and bold, complementing the high-quality vodka

Best of all, they made a great gift. And with Christmas looming on the horizon, what better way to celebrate the first mostly-normal festive season in a long time than with a drink around the tree? Although these are available to the public through the online store, you’ll find various bottles at a number of bars and venues across the North-West, so check their website for more details.

The North has a strong history of drinks producers, dating back centuries – Miles & Moone is a worthy addition to that list.